The Killing Curse
by MarkTurner
Summary: This story is set after book 5. Harry is hit once again by the killing curse. What does that mean for the future of the wizarding world?
1. The Escape

Disclaimer : I don't own anything in the world of Harry Potter, that's J.K.Rowling's job. The plot is mine though.

Background : The story starts after OoTP, so there could be spoilers up to that point.

CHAPTER 1 - THE ESCAPE

As darkness ended what was another baking hot summers day, a small owl wobbled through Harry's window. It bounced off the far wall, and landed down with a soft flop on his bed. The owl looked up at him in a slightly confused way and held out the letter it had been carrying. Harry really needed some good news.

Admittedly there had been some small improvement from the Dursleys for the first few weeks of the summer holidays, but he found himself spending every day trapped upstairs in his little room with nothing more to do than to read some of his school books and stare out of the window longingly. He was constantly reminded by an increasingly edgy Uncle Vernon to write to 'those people' and that he didn't want any of 'them' coming round and destroying his home. He glanced over at the letter and recognised the usual scribbling of his best friend Ron. Hermione, Ron and Remus had been writing to him regularly to try to cheer him up and make sure he was all right, but it rarely did. He had even got a small letter off Ginny which brought a smile to his face, and even one off Mad-Eye, who seemed all too keen to find a reason to come over to the Dursleys and 'hex the lot of em'.

Harry reached over to pick up the letter and thanked Pig with a quick pat on the head and a few owl treats. As Harry began reading the letter, his first proper smile in a long time began to emerge.

_Hi Harry, I know your family will have been giving you a hard time there despite what you keep saying in your letters. Dumbledore came round this morning and told us that it would be all right for you to leave there next week and come and live with us for the rest of the summer. Isn't that good news? Fred and George will be coming round with me to pick you up Monday morning so I hope Pig doesn't take too long about getting there. There should be another letter here as well, which might interest you. Dumbledore has already told us what it's about, but I won't spoil it for you._

_See you soon, Ron_

"Won't spoil it for me?" he thought "I wonder what that means."

Sure enough there was another letter inside the envelope, slightly smaller than the first. He looked up and saw Hedwig taking care of Pig, making sure he had enough water and tucking him under her wing. They preferred using Pig to pass letters to each other as he was small and would be much harder to spot by muggles. It wasn't normal behaviour for owls to be flying around during the day, especially ones carrying letters. Harry unfolded the second letter and started reading. It was written far more neatly than the first.

_Good evening Harry. I have been able to persuade the Ministry to allow you to perform limited magic outside of Hogwarts. It is my belief that you are sensible enough to show restraint, and it would be beneficial for you to practise some of the more important spells before school starts again. You must take extra care to not be spotted by muggles, as you have not been shown how to perform the memory charm. Your Aunt and Uncle already know about your magic so it shouldn't be a problem if they see you._

_Dumbledore._

Harry grinned. It would have been nice to have gotten this letter just a few weeks earlier so he could finally get some payback for years of being mistreated, but that did nothing to ruin his good mood. "This is certainly a letter to show Uncle Vernon", he thought, and after putting his wand in his back pocket, bounded down the stairs.

His uncle looked less than happy at being disturbed while watching one of his favourite programs, but took the letter off Harry and began reading. As his eyes moved across the page his face gradually started losing its colour.

"Well… erm… yeh… just stay up in your room! I will not have you using that _thing_ dow-"

Harry pulled his wand out of his pocket and with a quick flick, there were a dozen small blue butterflies fluttering randomly about the room. His aunt screamed as if large wasps and not harmless butterflies were attacking her, and ran into the kitchen, closely followed by a wobbling Dudley. His uncle meanwhile was waving his arms about madly as if trying to tread water. He stood up and took a few steps towards Harry, before obviously changing his mind and joining his family in the kitchen.

Harry chuckled to himself, removed the butterflies, and went back upstairs to his room. Next summer would be different he vowed, no more being locked up inside his room. He could do whatever he liked and they wouldn't be able to punish him for it. He crammed most of the things he would need into his trunk, and then settled down for an early night.

On Saturday morning Harry bounded downstairs to start cooking breakfast. Normally he would have hated getting up early on a Sunday just to make everyone else breakfast, but now he had his wand. With the small swish and flick, taught to him again and again by Professor Flitwick, the eggs leapt onto the frying pan and began to sizzle away nicely. The pan occasionally twitched to make sure it was cooking properly. The Dursleys were now not only ignoring him completely, but also actively doing there very best to avoid being in the same room as him. They had taken to going out in the evenings and not coming back till late at night, in the hope by that time Harry would have gone upstairs to his room. As Harry watched the orange juice pouring itself into glasses, he smiled, remembering how much fun he had had over the last week.

He had started by making sure he had completed all of his DADA homework, now actually being able to practise some of the spells he was writing about, instead of having to wait till term started. Of course, he kept the door to his room wide open. He had just finished raising and lowering a new shield charm he had read about in _101 Ways of Getting Out of Trouble – The Magical Way _when he spotted Dudley standing in the doorway, gawping at him. It must have taken Harry less than a second to decide to fire a Blank spell at him, usually used to force your opponent to waste energy dodging it, even though it would have no effect on anything it hit. Dudley had no idea.

"Wh- wh- wh- waaaa…" he shouted, clutching at his behind and looking around nervously. For some reason he decided that the best thing to do would be to rush towards Harry. It didn't take much more than another second for Harry to cast a banishing charm that sent him a few feet into the air, and then back down with a loud _thud_ just outside his room. Deciding that probably wasn't such a good idea, Dudley staggered down the stairs and out the door, not even bothering to have dinner, which was probably a first.

Then there had been the time that he had tried a tickling charm, which rebounded off him small mirror and just caught him on the arm as he tried to get out of the way. Unable to do anything about it, he burst out in hysterics, dropping his wand to the floor. Being the early hours of the morning, Uncle Vernon had stormed into the room and demanded that he stopped making all that noise. All Harry could do was sit there and laugh. Eyeing Harry's wand lying on the floor beside him, Vernon decided to take that moment to try and 'put a stop to all that nonsense'. It was about that time that the tickling charm wore off, and Uncle Vernon found himself in the same position Dudley was, sprawled out on the floor just outside his room. Harry had put a fair bit more power behind the spell this time, and couldn't help but smile when he saw his uncle limping out of the door on his way to work.

Right now as he stood there and cooking breakfast he decided that being at the Dursley's wasn't so bad any more. He took his fried egg sandwich and stepped out into the kitchen-

WHAM

Pain.

The side of Harry's head felt like it was going to explode. Stars surrounded most of his vision and it was all he could do to keep himself conscious. He looked up and saw a purple-faced uncle standing over him shouting at the top of his voice.

"I'm going to teach you a lesson boy! Worthless piece of filth! You won't be able to do any of that… that… stuff of yours again when I've finished with you. Beat it out of you I will!"

"Wh…aa…noo!" Mumbled Harry, barely able to form sensible word in his mind. Vernon pulled his leg back and prepared to give Harry a quick kick to the stomach. Unable to move away in time Harry closed his eyes and tried to roll out of the way, and the same time wishing he was back in the relative safety of his room.

_Crack_

There wasn't any pain this time. In fact, there wasn't even an uncle. Harry opened his eyes and found himself lying on the floor of his room. Unable to think of anything else, he put the strongest locking charm on his door that he could manage, before falling asleep still lying there. He decided not to leave his room for the rest of the weekend.

* * *

Ron wasn't certain why the twins were so eager to go with him to pick up Harry. He was certainly grateful for it, as they could all ride along in the car that they had bought recently. It was taking him a while to get used to the idea that Fred and George had a fair bit of money coming in from their shop, and they could afford to buy lots of new things.

"Hurry up, Ron. We've been ready ages! Things to do. People to see."

_How could anyone have that much energy in a morning! _

On his way down he heard his mom talking to the twins, "Just don't you go causing any trouble with the Dursleys, even though they totally deserve it mind. You know how much they hate magic."

"Would we ever do something like that?" they replied, putting on a most innocent expression.

The two of them laughed and raced out the door, followed by a very sleepy looking Ron, leaving Mrs Weasley standing at the doorway shaking her head but smiling.

The Weasleys' new car was definitely not the sort of car that would drive past unnoticed. It was bright pink, the colour of Tonks' hair, and looked from the outside barely big enough to hold more than one person at a time. The noise it made sounded more fitting for a motorbike than a car. Inside it was far more comfortable than it should have been, there was plenty of space for the 3 of them to stretch their legs. "Awesome", declared Ron, after the car blaring out music that could probably be heard a good few streets away.

They bounced and rattled down the road far too fast for what the car should have been able to handle. "There must be more magic here than car" he thought. When they reached Privet Drive they screeched to a halt outside Harry's house. The car made so much noise they could see Harry's uncle looking out of his window to see what all the fuss was about. He seemed to turn almost purple when he realised where it had stopped and then disappeared again into the back of the house. They could hear him shouting Harry even from outside.

"Come on then brothers", called George cheerfully, "lets go and sort this lot out."

* * *

Hagrid was having a good day.

He occasionally thought back to when he was at school himself, to when he had a wand, and when the rest of the wizarding world didn't think he had been the one to open the Chamber of Secrets. He wished that he still could use his wand from time to time, but eventually he had begun to accept what had happened and was almost pleased with the way things turned out. What could be better than spending his days looking after all these wonderful animals?

Picking up a large bucket of cabbages, he wondered over to where he still kept a pair of Skrewts. Both having reached full size, they were now nearly 4 meters long and ate an awful lot of cabbages. Still smiling, Hagrid reached the enclosure and looked out. Sitting there right in the middle sunning itself was a young Hungarian Horntail, which despite its age was just slightly taller than he was. Upon seeing Hagrid, the dragon roared a long funnel of fire nearly 30 feet long, smouldering the edges of his beard. Such was the half-giant's delight at seeing such a thing he rushed over to it and began talking to it in an almost motherly way, not noticing the lack of Skrewts, or even the way the dragon was licking its lips contently.

Hagrid's day just got even better.

* * *

Harry had heard the loud noise outside and had guessed it might be something to do with the Weasleys even before his uncle shouted up to him. He had already got everything all packed up so just sat there and waited for the knock at the door. None came. He was just about to go back to talking to Hedwig when there was a loud crash from downstairs. He poked his head outside his door and looked down the stairs.

"Hullo Mr Dursley", yelled George, who was now standing atop the door which was flat in the hallway, "I tried the err… door-knocking spell, and you didn't seem to reply so I thought there was trouble. I'm sure you will have no trouble fixing this door though." He seemed to be trying really hard to control his laughter.

"Just take the boy and go!" called back his uncle, who seemed to have decided to stay in the kitchen and not have anything to do with the guests.

"Okay, have it your way. _Accio trunk._" Fred pointed his wand up the stairs and Harry had to dodge quickly out of the way of his very heavy truck, before it went bouncing and crashing down the stairs and out the door, nearly bowling Ron over in the process.

"Sorry about that Harry old chap, didn't see you up there," he called, spotting Harry at the top of the stairs, "grab Hedwig and lets go!"

Harry grabbed Hedwig's cage off the bed and met the Weasleys at the doorway.

"Like our new car then mate?" asked Fred when he saw Harry looking at it in amazement. "Dad is well pleased with it. It can fly like the old one, but we haven't had chance to test it out yet. He won't let us fly it in the daytime though after what happened last time."

"Yeh, it's stunning" he said still staring at the bright pink car on the driveway. "Very unique."

As they left the house he conjured the butterflies back into the living room. He knew they wouldn't last long, but hopefully long enough to worry his family for a while. Walking down the path he looked from Hedwig to the car and decided that she would probably be a lot happier making her own way to The Burrow instead of being bounced along in the car.

"You want to make your own way there girl?" he asked, "You know the way to The Burrow don't you?"

She made a little hoot that seemed to mean yes, so he let her out and she quickly flew away, glad to be able to stretch her wings. Just as they were about to get into the car, George stopped them.

"Mustn't forget this" he grinned, and pulled out of his pocket what looked alarmingly like a grenade. "It's one of our new Weasleys Wizarding Graffiti Bombs. This will be the first proper test." He threw the bomb straight at the house and took a step back.

The bomb arched perfectly through the air and landed squarely in the middle of the house, causing a surprisingly strange "splat" noise, accompanied by quite a lot of smoke. As the smoke cleared they could see quite plainly the words "Miserable Sods" written in large pink letters right across the house. It matched the car perfectly.

Fred and George stood there admiring their work and beaming "Worked out quite well don't you think brother?"

"I do indeed brother. It could do with a bit more of a bang though."

"Great idea."

Fred turned to Harry "Don't worry they should be able to get it off in a few days, if not we will pop round and clear it up."

Harry was paying no attention to him at all. He and Ron were just standing there laughing, unable to speak. Trust the twins to come up with something like that to cheer him up. Fred and George soon joined in and as they drove off back to the Burrow, the sound of their laughter could almost be heard above the sound of the car.


	2. A Helping Hand

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the world of Harry Potter, that's J.K.Rowling's job. The plot is mine though.

Background: Harry has just left the Dursleys to spend the rest of the summer with the Weasleys.

CHAPTER 2 – A HELPING HAND 

Once the four of them had arrived, Mrs Weasley began laying the table and filling their plates with mountains of food. Harry got double helpings of everything. Like always he had not quite been starved at the Dursley's, but he was definitely starting to look a bit thin. That day he was especially enjoying the chocolate cake, which Hermione had shown Mrs Weasley how to make from an old muggle cookbook. After he had eaten all that he could, and probably even more besides, he went upstairs to meet Ron and Hermione. As he opened the door to his room he could see Ron and Hermione sitting next to each other on his bed, waiting for him and laughing. As they looked up they looked slightly embarrassed, stopped laughing and stood up to greet him. Hermione spoke first.

"Harry! So good to see you again after all this time." She gave Harry a small hug before continuing, "We had both already eaten so we thought we would wait for you up here."

"Good to see you too Hermione, and you Ron," he replied "I thought I was going mad being kept up there all that time. Can't wait till I never have to go back to that house ever again, I wish Dumbledore didn't force me to go."

"But Harry, you know you have to stay there for your own safety." replied Hermione, being the voice of reason as always

"It is certainly good to be back though. I can do magic now as well!" He pulled his wand out of his pocket and waved it towards Ron playfully, causing him to duck out of the way. Harry chuckled and put it back in his pocket.

Hermione reached over and passed Harry a copy of the Daily Prophet. "Have you been reading the papers recently Harry? It seems they've got no choice but to admit Voldemort is back now."

Harry took the paper and glanced at the headline_. Dark Lord Returns_. The whole article was filled with the usual twisted truths and lies. _Members of the Ministry of Magic bravely fought off the attack…the great Dumbledore was nowhere to be seen…you heard it first _here_ in The Prophet…_

He threw the paper down in disgust. How dare they? It had been the D.A and the Aurors who had fought Voldemort that night. How dare they say that about Dumbledore, who had fought single-handedly against someone most of the Ministry were afraid to even mention. Sensing his anger, Ron spoke up.

"It isn't all bad. At least those thickheads have finally accepted that You-Know-Who has actually returned. People will start to be extra careful and things. And nobody has even sighted him since he was in the Ministry."

"I suppose so," said Harry, "but it's only a matter of time. He has to be planning something."

After discussing the problem some more, Harry went with Ron out into the garden, eager for a ride around on his broom. Hermione followed them and sat down on the grass with a book which neither Ron or Harry could make heads or tails of. Flying always took his mind off the things that were bothering him, and soon he had nearly forgotten all about his time at Privet Drive. They tried to chase each other around at first, but Harry with his Firebolt could leave Ron so far behind that it soon became boring. Luckily Ron didn't need a broom that was really fast being a keeper.

When they had both tired themselves out, the 3 of them walked back through the kitchen. Harry glanced up at the Weasley clock, and saw that the hand for Mr Weasley was moving from work, to travelling, and then back to home. Shortly after there was a popping noise, and Mr Weasley appeared looking rather wind swept. His cheeks were bright red and his hat was sitting on his head at a funny angle. He had his wand drawn and was looking quite nervous. He turned and spotted Harry.

"Oh err hi Harry, I thought you would be coming down here today. Listen, do you suppose you could come back with me and give me hand. Someone let off one of those animating bombs in a muggle toyshop and caused utter chaos. I've had to stun the shopkeeper and a few customers until we can get the situation under control. I wouldn't ask, but I don't think I can manage it on my own and I know you are allowed to use magic and everything."

"Sure thing Mr Weasley." Harry replied eagerly, gladly taking any chance he could get to use him magic outside school, "I can't apparate like you can though…"

"No problem, I can just pull you along. We have to leave now though, it's getting quite desperate."

Harry gave a quick wave to his friends, and before he could say anything else Mr Weasley had grabbed his arm and everything disappeared.

* * *

The sensation was very similar to travelling by portkey, and Harry was certain that he would have rather travelled by broom. A few seconds later, he landed with a thud and stumbled over onto the ground. He looked up and tried to take in his surroundings. He was in the middle of what was obviously quite a large store. All around him were shelves that were three or four boxes high, all containing toys ranging from dolls to tanks. The most alarming thing however was the small army of soldiers staring him right in the face. They were all arranging themselves into lines and walking towards him with their swords raised. Harry looked over and saw Mr Weasley was busy fighting with a few dolls, one of which kept trying to cover his eyes, which was making it very difficult for him to see where to aim his spells. A small car kept driving into his leg.

"Harry! Just use the standard _finite_ spell!" Mr Weasley shouted, before continuing his fight against the dolls.

For a moment Harry just sat there stunned. An arrow flew through the air and scratched the side of his face, which instantly snapped his mind into action. Starting with the small army in front of him, he aimed his wand and shouted, "_finite_", causing half the army to collapse. The rest of them looked a lot less sure of themselves at this point, so just charged all at once. Harry was forced to have to kick some of them away before he could fire another spell. Another few spells later, and the army lay in front of him, defeated. He then turned his attention to Mr Weasley and saw he was still outnumbered by at least fifteen dolls.

They had formed a half circle around him and were gradually backing him towards the wall. Harry fired off a stunning spell at one and ran over and kicked another, which knocked over yet another few. The temporary distraction was all Mr Weasley needed to regain control of the situation, and they soon had the rest of them motionless again.

The two of them then proceeded to walk down each of the aisles, shooting off a quick spell at everything that moved. About half way round there was this fast movement behind Harry, and suddenly a furry bear had grabbed onto his head and was trying it's best to stuff its hand down his throat. It was too close to his head to risk using any sort of spell on it, so it took a lot of effort from the both of them to wrench the toy away, and end whatever spell had been cast on it.

When finally it looked like the shop was free of anything magic, the two of them sat down on the floor and took a look around. Toys littered the floor, arms and legs ripped off those that had turned on each other, boxes were ripped open, and smoke was coming from a few places that toys had set fire to. Despite the seriousness of the situation Harry could not help himself from laughing, and soon both of them were laughing hysterically.

"Thanks for that Harry," Mr Weasley chuckled, "Couldn't have done it without you. Good job you were around, I didn't want to call the Ministry and ask for help, there is… enough going on there as it is."

"What sort of things Mr Weasley?"

"Well you didn't here this from me, but there are lot of people who want to see Minister Fudge replaced. Now that You-Know-Who has definitely returned people seem to think that he should have taken more notice of the rumours and started preparing. Even now he is trying to pretend everything is alright. Anyone who remembers the last war knows all too well that you can never be prepared enough."

"Any idea who the next Minister will be?"

"It will probably be the Wizengamot that eventually decides, no one quite knows for sure who it will be though. I had better get you back now then Harry; we have been here quite a long time. Take this portkey and I will meet you back home later. I still have to try and repair as many of these things as I can and then modify the memories of anyone who might have seen it."

Mr Weasley handed him a strange black and white striped sock, and almost instantly he felt the familiar sensation of the portkey carrying him back to The Burrow.

* * *

A/N : Only a short chapter this time, but don't worry the main story will start soon. I have been spending most of my time on my other story. 


	3. Dead

Chapter 3 - Dead

The rest of the holidays passed by much less eventfully. The letters from Hogswarts arrived on time - though nobody seemed to know who the new Defence teacher was going to be - and by the time the day came to start the new term, everyone had almost forgotten about the horrible events of last year. It was easy to pretend that the whole world revolved around who was playing the next game of pick-up Quidditch and who Ron was going to beat next in chess when they lived in such a sheltered environment such as the Burrow.

Nevertheless the calmness could not last forever and so they found themselves crowding, sleepy-eyed, into the back of a ministry car. Mr Weasley had hired one from work to make sure that for once they all ended up at the platform with plenty of time to spare. As they arrived the train was only just pulling _into_ the station - which was surprising because they had no idea the train had anywhere else to be other than wait for them at the platform! After saying their goodbyes, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny made their way onto the train and ended up sitting in the very front carriage.

"Makes a change doesn't it Ron," said Hermione once they had all sat down, "to get here in plenty of time. It was a good idea of your dad to hire us that car earlier. It was far quicker that way."

Harry looked out of the window onto the platform and groaned. Malfoy and his pair of goons were making their way onto the train, and with nobody else around, they were bound to want to cause some trouble. He surreptitiously reached for his wand in his pocket. As predicted, a few moments later, Malfoy wandered into their compartment.

"What's the matter Weasley," he drawled, "couldn't afford to keep your house and so decided to live on the train? I guess Potty's _family_didn't want him either."

Ron sat their spluttering, and looked as though he was going to rush Malfoy at any minute, but it was Harry who reacted first. He drew his wand and pointed it square at Malfoy.

"I didn't see your father around this morning Malfoy. Is he enjoying _his_ new home?"

Surprisingly Malfoy didn't take the bait. "I'd watch my back if I were you Potter. For as long as you have one. Things are going to be very different around here soon." With that he left to find his own seat, Crabbe and Goyle following as usual.

"Did Malfoy seem a little odd to you?" Hermione asked, once the door had closed behind them.

"I suppose so," Harry pondered, "I thought he would have been up for a fight today and want revenge for his father being in Azkaban. It was almost as if he knew something we didn't."

"You don't think it has anything to do with the Defence teacher do you? Dumbledore didn't say anything about a new teacher in the Hogwarts letter."

Harry thought back to his lessons last year. "As long as it isn't Umbridge then it will be a definite improvement."

"Don't say that Harry," Hermione sighed, "or you'll jinx it."

Their compartment door suddenly opened again, and this time all four of them drew their wands. It was Neville.

"Hey guys, it's only me and Luna," Neville spoke nervously, holding his hands up and backing away from the wands, "mind if we join you or are you expecting someone else?"

They all lowered their wands at once, and Ginny was the first to speak, "That's fine, come on in. We just had an unpleasant run-in with Malfoy so we can't be too careful."

Neville and Luna sat down opposite each other next to the door, and after a few moments Luna put her feet up and rested them on Neville's knees. Neville looked at her questioningly, but didn't say anything.

They had been travelling for a couple of hours, and they had just finished eating as many chocolate frogs as they could manage in one sitting, when Neville turned to Harry.

"Are you going to be running the DA again this year Harry? I learnt loads more there than I did in the Defence lessons. I find it easier to remember things when you explain them. You make them seem useful."

"I haven't really thought about it at all," Harry replied, "and we don't even know who the Defence teacher is going to be this year. They might not like someone else running a club for their subject. Besides they could be really good."

"Oh okay." Neville didn't take it any further, but it was clear he was disappointed.

As Harry left the train at Hogsmede station he looked around to see if there were any teachers about that he didn't recognise, but he still couldn't spot any. 'Perhaps Dumbledore hasn't been able to find a replacement,' he thought.

They rode up to the castle and entered through the massive wooden doors into the hall. The boats must have gotten across the lake quicker than usual, because by the time they had all found a seat, the first years had already formed a line at the front and were waiting to be sorted. Harry didn't even pay attention for much of the sorting. There was nobody there that he knew so it didn't really matter to him who ended up in what house. He just made sure to clap at the appropriate times. Once the hat had been taken off the head of the last pupil (a Hufflepuff called Roger) and the applause had died down, Professor Dumbledore stood up and motioned for everyone to listen.

"I would like to welcome everyone back for another year of learning things that the ministry sees fit for us to teach. Even more importantly than that are the skills that you pick up along the way that will help you to develop as people and become as successful as we know you can be for the rest of your lives. First of all I would like to remind all students that the forbidden forest is still true to its name, and anyone caught will either be eaten or punished quite severly."

Ron leaned over towards Harry and whispered, "Is it just me or is Dumbledore getting more and more weird every year?"

Harry didn't not reply but motioned for Ron to be quiet.

"... and so," Dumbledore continued, "finally I would like to offer a warm welcome to the newest member of our staff, Professor Beard." He motioned a few places to his left to a man that Harry had not even noticed was sitting there before. The reason for this was that there was almost nothing remarkable about him at all. He was of average height, had short brown hair, and reminded Harry of one of the many almost identical looking Ministry wizards that he had seen on his few brief trips there.

Again, once the polite applause had subsided, Dumbledore carried on, "Professor Beard has been a good friend of mine for many years now and has just come back from a period of extensive travelling. I can think of no person better qualified to teach you Defence this year. Now, I have kept you all waiting far too long as it is already," Ron's stomach growled in the affirmative, "so let's eat!"

Instantly plates heaped with food appeared on the tables, and like an Olympic sprinter starting a race, Ron was first out of the blocks to pile his plate of food.

About the time that Ron was considering helping himself to a third plate of food he spotted Professor Beard stand up and walk down between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. Suddenly, as the professor reached the point where the trio was sitting, he whipped out his wand and pointed it straight at Harry, who had his back to him.

"Wha..," was all Ron could splutter with his mouth full of food, before Professor Beard fired off his curse.

"_Avada Kedavra!" _he bellowed, silencing the whole room.

Harry barely had time to even turn his head before the ugly green light collided with his back and he slowly toppled out of his seat. He just about had time to wonder why Hermione was screaming, and why he was wondering anything at all, before everything went black.

A/N : This is probably the slowest update in the history of updating. Due to one thing or another, and then my laptop exploding, I just haven't gotten round to it. I have felt in the mood the last few days so this is what I came up with. I'm a little rusty!


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